Introduction. The nurse’s job is one of professions identified with widely comprehended health care. Peculiar burdens, typical of this job, are connected with it, namely disappointment, relatively low prestige, and what follows – inappropriate remuneration. They bring together a lot of potential negative impacts on the mental and the physical sphere of nurses’ functioning, and in the absence of skills to counter them, they lead to professional burnout. Aim. Based on long-term observation of the nursing environment, external and internal conditions of the pursued profession, the literature review from the scope of stress and professional burnout, an attempt to diagnose stress causing factors, as well as straining stress and professional burnout amongst nurses working in all sorts of medical entities was made. Material and methods. The studies covered a group of 200 nurses working in a variety of therapeutic entities, operating in the Lubuskie province. The method of a diagnostic survey based on the survey technique using the author’s questionnaire form was applied for examinations. However, the statistical analysis of research results and verification of adopted hypotheses were prepared using two statistical values: the dominant and chi-square test. Results. Obtained findings allow to state that the nurse’s job is associated with stress causing factors which can be divided into factors specific for this profession and factors connected with working conditions. Conclusions. The most frequent stress causing factors in the nurse’s job are: the excess of duties, responsibility for health of the other person, dissatisfaction and grudges of patients and their families. However, the overload with duties is a crucial factor causing the loss of satisfaction from work performed and leading to professional burnout. 75% of respondents cannot be considered professionally burnt out due to the insufficient amount of symptoms, connected with this syndrome, irrespective of the healing entity in which they provide services.

Key words: professional stress, professional burnout of nurses.